After finishing last season with a 9–6 record and falling to Georgetown in the NCAA Tournament, the Bulldogs come into the new season with high hopes. That is not to say that meeting those hopes will be easy, as the Ivy League is shaping up to be one of the most competitive conferences in the nation this season, with three teams currently ranked in the top 15.

The starting lineup for the Bulldogs as they took the field for their first game of the season was not one many would have expected. Star attackmen and last year’s two leading goalscorers Chris Lyons ’25 and Leo Johnson ’25 were both out with injuries, leaving questions about where the Elis would find offense. 

The answer it turned out to be, was the same answer it has been for the Bulldogs for the past two seasons: leading man Matt Brandau ’24. 

Brandau, who along with Lyons, was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List for the best player in college lacrosse, opened his season with two goals and four assists to push the Bulldogs past the Wildcats. 

However, late in the game with the score tied at 11, the hero proved to be one of the players filling in for Lyons and Johnson. 

Carson Kuhl ’25, who is listed on the roster as a midfielder but played attack all day for the Bulldogs, scored the final two goals of the game to secure an opening-day win for Yale. The two late-game goals joined his first-quarter tally to give Kuhl the hattrick on a day the Bulldogs needed to find offense.

Kuhl was joined on attack by David Anderson ’27, who introduced himself to the Yale fans with a hattrick of his own in his first collegiate start. 

The defense also played well for the Bulldogs, limiting the Villanova offense to only 22 shots on goal, 11 of which were saved by goalie Jared Paquette ’25.

Leading the defense was Patrick Pisano ’26, who in his first collegiate start wreaked havoc on the Villanova offense all afternoon. Pisano forced four turnovers and scooped up five ground balls, earning him the title of Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week. 

Despite the win, the Bulldogs will have a big second week of the season ahead, with matchups against two Top-20 teams in the nation.

On Wednesday the Bulldogs will travel to Albany to take on No. 20 Colgate before then heading to Pennsylvania to play No. 13 Penn State.

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In a defensive battle, the Bulldogs prevailed, coming up with the big plays when they were needed, just as they have all season.

“This team has fought through a lot this season, from the first game to now,” head coach Tony Reno said. “I’m just really proud of the resolve that these guys have had. An incredible captain, incredible senior leadership and it showed today.”

The 139th edition of The Game was decided with less than six minutes left when quarterback Nolan Grooms ’24 found wide receiver David Pantelis ’25 in the corner of the endzone to put the Bulldogs ahead.

It was a fitting end to a contest in which both teams looked to their skill position players to make the breakthrough plays, as both defenses were strong all afternoon. Much of the Yale offense on the day came from running back Joshua Pitsenberger ’26, who gained 99 rushing yards individually compared to the team’s 90 passing yards. 

“[The group of receivers is] really a great thing to have,” Grooms said. “Teams really [try] to double cover Mason and expect to stop us. You’ve got Ryan Lindley who’s been a little banged up the last couple weeks, but he’s one of the best receivers in the league, and you got David Pantelis who was our leading receiver last year, we got him back the last three games.”

Despite the strong work of the receivers, the Yale defense was the story of the day. In a rivalry game with a share of the Ivy League title on the line, the Elis’ defense only allowed 318 yards, forcing an interception and a timely fumble. 

The last play of The Game was a perfect encapsulation of the day for the Bulldog defense. Crimson quarterback Jaden Craig, facing fourth-and-14 from the Yale 33-yard line following an Abu Kamara ’27 sack, was once again hurried by the pass rush and flung an incomplete pass into the endzone. 

To the delight of the Yale fans making up a sizable portion of the 51,127-person crowd, cornerback Sean Guyton ’25 was there to once again thwart the Harvard offense, swatting the ball to the ground to ensure a Bulldogs win.

As fans stormed the field following a final kneel down by Grooms to cap an excellent Yale career for the quarterback, the excitement doubled as the victory was both a win over the Crimson and the final piece needed to secure back-to-back Ivy League Championships for the Bulldogs.

The 139th edition of The Game secured the Bulldogs their third Ivy League championship in the past four seasons.

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With all of those fake accents so rotten

Almost as bad as that tiny stadium 

You’re certainly going to miss the podium

It makes me think of your precious Final Clubs

Filled with countless Crimson scrubs

Ruining any hope of a fun time

Almost like having fun for you all would be a crime

But enough about all that — let’s get to the field

Where all your weaknesses will be revealed

You can’t throw the ball

Sure, you can run, but throw? Not at all

Oh, boy, will our defense have a day

From the second we begin to play

I can already see your QB on his back

Having no way to deal with our attack

But not to worry, we’ll show you the way

When Grooms wins the day

Throwing the ball deep to Tipton

I can already see it being written

I know this will be the first Game for your Claudine Gay

But all she’ll want to do is look away

Peter Salovey will be the one to party

Our Elis are just far too hearty

But at the end of the The Game

We’ll really all be same

Except of course for the fact

That nothing can distract

That all you’ll be thinking about on Sunday

Is that you have school on Monday!

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The Bulldogs have had a strong season, especially of late, as they enter The Game with a three-game winning streak. Yale is sitting in second place in the Ivy League standings, and a win against the first-place Crimson would tie the two teams at five conference wins and give Yale a second consecutive Ivy League title.

Following the start of the Bulldogs season, which saw them lose their opening two games to Holy Cross and Cornell, few outside of the team would have seen them competing for first place in the Ancient Eight. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs felt confident that their luck would change. 

“We felt like it was still sort of controlling our own destiny,” quarterback Nolan Grooms ’24 said. “It was a decision the team made that Monday, that Tuesday. You got to come ready to work every day, that’s where decisions were made. We saw it at practice, and we’ve been on a roll ever since and we’re in this place we are in now because of it”

Indeed, the Bulldogs did go on a roll, as the Elis ripped off three straight wins after the loss to Cornell. The Bulldogs were dominant in the three-game stretch, winning the three games by a combined score of 107–30.

The win streak came to an end in a hard-fought loss to Penn, marking Yale’s second conference loss of the season. Once again, the loss didn’t hang over the team, as they have again gone on a three-win streak. 

“We’ve reinvented ourselves three times this season,” head coach Tony Reno said. “Defensively early on we lost Brandon [Benn ’24] and Dathan [Hickey ’24], and then offensively, we walked out of Dartmouth and we had four linemen … a lot of that we had to reinvent was what we were looking at with Nolan too, because he’s had to kind of change gears twice this season. He’s done a great job with it, and we’re really proud of him and obviously, you see the evolution of our offense, our defense and offense.”

The Bulldogs won handily against Columbia and Brown before winning in dramatic fashion against Princeton in double overtime.

Entering The Game, the Bulldogs have shown an ability to win many different styles of games. 

Offensively, Yale has been explosive, having been held under 20 points only once. Quarterback Nolan Grooms, last season’s Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, is the engine behind it all, as his ability to run and throw stresses defenses every week. 

Grooms leads the Ancient Eight in passing touchdowns with 20 on the year and in completion percentage at 66.5 percent. However, throwing is only part of how Grooms can affect a game, as he’s also a threat on the run. The Eli quarterback ranks fourth among all players in the Ivy League with 576 rushing yards on the season.

When the quarterback needs a break, running backs Joshua Pitsenberger ’26, Tre Peterson ’24 and Spencer Alston ’24 have proven to be a lethal platoon. Pitsenberger is the lead man with his eight rushing touchdowns ranking second in the Ivies. 

Through the air, the main story for the Bulldogs has been star wide receiver Mason Tipton ’24. The senior wideout has exploded for 755 receiving yards and ten touchdowns on the season, both top of the Ivy League. His ten touchdowns are also good for third in all of FCS football.

“For me personally, it’s been very eerily similar to last year, the last four games this season were my best games of the season, it’s kind of the same this year,” Grooms said. “I made a decision to be myself, and it’s easy when I’ve got Mason Tipton out there, get the ball to him and everything’s been great.” 

On defense, the Bulldogs have rolled out a strong unit despite early season injuries to the secondary. Up front, Clay Patterson ’24 leads the way with 4.5 sacks on the season, third in the league.

Behind him lies the linebackers in the heart of the defense led by seniors Joseph Vaughn ’24 and Hamilton Moore ’24. The duo has combined for 125 tackles, three forced fumbles and four interceptions on the season. 

Following the early season injuries, the secondary has found continuity in the cornerback duo of captain Wande Owens ’24 and Sean Guyton ’25. The bruising 209-pound Owens often plays to the boundary and isn’t afraid to make a tackle — the cornerback ranks second on the team with 51 total tackles. Guyton meanwhile is often put in a space where he can use his speed to shut down opposing teams’ number-one wide receivers.

What has set the Bulldogs apart from other Ivy teams this season has been their ability to dominate in all three aspects of the game, as special teams have been a strength because they are typically coached by Tony Reno. The Elis are first in the Ancient Eight with an average of 24.6 yards a kickoff return. The team has also blocked three punts this season. 

The Bulldogs have won two of the last three Ivy League championships.

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After falling 49–24 to Holy Cross last Saturday, the Bulldogs will lean on their leadership and hard-nosed style of play to try to get in the win column for the first time in 2023.

“We’re very familiar with playing gritty football,” head coach Tony Reno said. “We’re kind of, as you say, gritty not pretty. We like the muck, that’s who we are. We like the muck and that’s how we play. That’s how we do things, we love adversity.”

Playing in “the muck” has proven successful for the Bulldogs before — they have excelled at running the ball with a deep lineup of running backs, and dual-threat quarterback Nolan Grooms ’24 is always ready to run the ball from the pocket 

In the season opener, the Bulldogs ran for 226 yards, led by Tre Peterson ’24, who carried the ball 17 times for 95 yards. Grooms also broke down the Holy Cross defense with a mix of planned and impromptu running plays, racking up 68 rushing yards in the process. 

“I think the thing that has made us so successful in the past is we’re able to be physical off the ball,” Grooms said. “We have big offensive linemen, both of our tackles are 6-foot-5 plus, 300 [pounds] plus. That is really across the board.” 

Cornell started their season on a different note, downing Lehigh 23–20 in their own season opener. The Big Red jumped to a 14–0 first quarter lead and then held off the Mountain Hawks to secure a 1–0 start to the season. 

The focus for the Yale defense will be stopping Cornell junior quarterback Jameson Wang. Wang led the Big Red past Lehigh last week with 297 yards passing and 85 yards rushing. The quarterback also threw for two touchdowns to cap off the strong showing. 

Team 150 will look to its leadership to help them down the Big Red, as captain Wande Owens ’24 settles into his role. 

“My job is really to help lead this team obviously, but also to develop other leaders,” Owens said. “Because it’s not just me leading a team. It’s the senior class, the junior class, even if there’s leaders in the freshman class. To bring everybody along to help us accomplish this common goal.”

This season’s schedule will feel familiar to many of the older players on the team, as Cornell has been the Bulldogs’ first Ivy League opponent every season since 2000.

Yale has won the past five matchups against the Big Red and will kickoff this season’s meeting at noon Saturday at the Yale Bowl.  

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The game was tight until the very end, as the first quarter ended 2–2, the second 5–5 and the third 8–8 before the Crimson finally took the advantage and outscored the Bulldogs in the final quarter 2–1.

“It is definitely disappointing that we fell to Harvard,” Alex Hopkins ’25 said. “We put up a good fight, but we are ultimately not happy with our end product. Games like this will happen, and all we need to do is accept and learn from our team’s mistakes.”

As Hopkins said after falling to University of Pennsylvania the weekend before, the key will be learning from the mistakes that saw Yale drop back-to-back games for the first time this season. 

Most important will be end-of-game situations, as the Bulldogs had an opportunity to tie the game after winning a draw with 2:49 left in the game. After winning the draw, the Elis seemed in control and ready to set up their offense, but they then turned the ball over and were never able to get it back before the final horn blew. 

“We never want to be the same team as we were yesterday,” Marymegan Wright ’25 said. “In other words, we’re always striving to get better.”

The Bulldogs now have two games to get back in the win column while they fight to stay in the top four in the Ivy League standings in order to qualify for the league playoffs. 

Much of the pressure will come in the first game against Cornell University, who currently sit at 2–3 in the Ivy League — only one game back of the Elis.

“Going into our next Ivy games we are trying to focus on regaining the confidence we had going into the season,” Sophie Straka ’25 said. “And this just comes with a lot of prep. So we’re doing a lot of game-like prep during practice to get us ready for that because Cornell is a must-win.”

The Bulldogs will square off with the Big Red at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Reese Stadium.

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The Bulldogs began the stretch with a strong first-place finish at the New England Team Race Championship on April 8 and 9, going 4–1 in their races.

“Winning the New England Team Race Championship was great as it auto-qualified us for the ICSA Team Race National Championships in Kings Point at the end of May,” Nathan Sih ’25 told the News.

The auto-qualification is an important one for the co-ed team, as the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association National Championships are the biggest of the season. 

The Bulldogs also took some satisfaction in defeating Ivy League rivals Harvard University and Dartmouth College behind strong performances in light wind conditions from skippers Teddy Nicolosi ’24, Jack Egan ’25 and Stephan Baker ’26.

“Conditions were very light and tricky which made it difficult to race and led to the regatta being shortened,” Baker said. “Despite having less races, we were still able to close out the victory with a race to spare. While this victory helped us clinch a spot in the National Championship in King’s Point Academy, NY and the one seed, we are going to continue working extremely hard to defend the national championship title this May.”

The focus then swung to the women’s team as they competed the next weekend in the New England Women’s Team Race Championship. 

The women turned in an equally impressive performance, as they went 15–2 with their only losses coming from Dartmouth. The strong performances earned the Bulldogs another first-place finish and auto-qualification for Nationals.

“The team will now be shifting more towards fleet racing, although team racing will still feature prominently, especially for our women’s team, as they have Women’s Team Race Nationals in two weeks,” Egan said. 

The Bulldogs finished out their in-season team races with the Oberg Trophy, a three-division race in a festive Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the weekend before Marathon Monday.

The Bulldogs turned out strong performances yet again, but came up just four points short of another first-place finish. The team was led by Mateo Farina ’25 and Jessi Avila-Shah ’25, who won the B Division. 

All ICSA National Championships will be held in Kings Point, New York, in late May.

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The Bulldogs started strong, leading 4-3 at the end of the first quarter, but that would prove to be the high point for the team.

The second and third quarters went significantly worse for the Elis, as they were shut out while the Quakers went on an 11–0 run. The hole they found themselves in proved to be too much, as UPenn cruised to a 16–6 win.

“Our recent loss against Penn does not define the team we are, and the team we have created this past season,” Alex Hopkins ’25 said. “We take this loss and learn from it and I am confident that we will reflect and perform as a team better than we have ever prepared before for a game.”

The loss dropped the Bulldogs to second place in the Ivy League with a record of 3–1 and sets up a dramatic end of the season, as two of their final three games will come against teams sitting at 2–2.

Next weekend will be an especially important game, as the Elis will travel to Cambridge to take on rivals Harvard.

“For our next Ivy games we are focusing on being more detail-oriented,” Sophie Straka ’25 said. “Making sure we control all the little things we can control so that we get the outcomes we want.”

Despite the setback, the Bulldogs remain the cream of the crop in the Ivy League as the highest nationally ranked women’s lacrosse team among the Ancient Eight. 

The focus will now be on moving forward, learning from the loss and finishing out the final three regular season games strong before entering Ivy playoffs.

“We never want to be the same team as we were yesterday,” Marymegan Wright ’25 said. “In other words, we’re always striving to get better.”

The bright spots for the Bulldogs came from a pair of sophomores on offense and a strong goaltending duo.

Attacker Jenna Collignon ’25 and midfielder Taylor Lane ’25 both posted hat tricks, while goalies Cami Donadio ’25 and Luanna Summer ’24 combined to make a season-high ten saves for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs will travel to Harvard Stadium this Saturday for a 3:30 pm showdown with the Crimson.

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The weekend began with the heavyweight team facing off against Dartmouth College for the Olympic Axe in a home race at Gilder Boathouse. 

As has often been the case in recent years, the Bulldogs dominated the Big Green, winning four of the five races — including the Varsity 8 — to retain the Olympic Axe, which it has held since the prize was created in 2004. 

“It was a solid race,” said Luca Liautaud ’25, who stroked the 3V. “We focused on keeping things lively and simple and quick. We brought great energy to the warmup, and the race fell into place from there. We’re pretty keen on pushing on and seeing what we can do in the weeks ahead.”

The Varsity 8 defeated the top Dartmouth boat by more than two seconds with a time of 5:26.70. 

Meanwhile, the women’s team turned in an equally dominant performance in Saratoga Springs, New York against Syracuse University and Cornell University. The team won all five races of the day, including a massive 15-second win in the 2V. 

The Elis also secured the Cayuga Cup when the Varsity 8 finished their race in 6:25.621, defeating the top Syracuse boat by more than five seconds and demolishing the Cornell Varsity 8 by nearly 41 seconds.

“All of our crews raced well today,” head coach Will Porter said to Yale Athletics. “There were great conditions for racing. We are slowly making progress with all of our lineups. I’m really proud of the team today.”

The lightweight team put the cap on an excellent weekend when it was their turn to race at Gilder Boathouse. They continued the Bulldogs’ dominance and won all three races against the Georgetown Hoyas.

“I think that Saturday was really exciting,” 3V coxswain Jackie Weyerhaeuser ’25 said. “It was nice to have wins across the board and the team is looking forward to the races to come.”

The Varsity 8 turned in another strong performance to lead the way for the Elis, putting in an impressive 5:35.6 time, leading the Georgetown Varsity 8 time of 5:38.4.

The lightweight team now will turn its focus to its Ivy League races, with hopes to continue their strong start to the spring season. 

“The team is feeling energized after two successful race weekends against the Naval Academy and Georgetown,” Blake Weyerhaeuser ’24 said. “The 1, 2, 3v and 4V have yet to lose a race but the close wins mean we can’t rest easy and must keep pushing to find more speed.”

This weekend, the heavyweight and lightweight teams will both host University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University on the Housatonic River, while the women’s team will travel to Cambridge to face rivals Harvard University.

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On April 1 against Brown, the Bulldogs followed a familiar script to victory, as attacker Jenna Collignon ’25 led the way in the 18–6 shellacking. The win was a big one for the Elis, as they felt they had something to prove in their third Ivy League game of the season.

“Dartmouth was tough,” midfielder Sophie Straka ’25 said. “It was a really challenging game mentally because it was so freezing and wet. But we still pulled out the win even though it was messy. I think it gave us the motivation to go into Brown with more fire because we wanted to make sure the rest of the Ivy League knew we weren’t going to be a close or an easy game.”

Much of that message was sent by Collignon, as she lit up the scoresheet with four goals and three assists against Brown. For her efforts, the sophomore earned her fourth Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week Award of the season. 

The game also proved to be a historic one for attacker Liv Penoyer ’23, who set a Yale record when she reached 87 career assists on a goal early in the second quarter. 

After the Brown win, the Bulldogs went right back to work as they faced off against undefeated Army just three days later on Tuesday. 

Despite the short rest, the Bulldogs played one of their best games of the season and were able to grind out a 14–13 win over an Army team that sat one spot below them in the national polls.

“We’re focusing a lot on the little details all over the field,” defender Marymegan Wright ’25 wrote to the News. “As we continue to face strong teams, our success has come from our ability to focus on the little details (that often determine the outcome of the game) and play together.”

While the result was the same — a Bulldogs win — the way the team won was very different. 

Army entered the game with a clear defensive gameplan to shut down Collignon, face guarding the Yale star the entire game and not allowing her any free space. However, this man-marking defensive scheme allowed the rest of the Bulldogs’ offense more room to operate, and they capitalized on it in a big way.

Without the offense running through Collignon as usual, three other Bulldogs scored hat tricks, with midfielder Fallon Vaughn ’25 leading the way with four goals in addition to two assists.

“Every single member of our team has an important role,” midfielder Alex Hopkins ’25 said. “Individually, we are all very talented with the same motivation to win and advance. And so collectively, we play as a unit that leads to our tremendous success. Brown and Army are very good teams, but with our personnel and talent we were able to dominate.”

The wins set the stage for a dramatic trip to Philadelphia this weekend for the Bulldogs, as they will square off with No. 22 UPenn, the only other team undefeated in Ivy League play.

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